Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche Concern without Panic Week 1: “Facing Fear, Finding Peace” October 3, 2020 Greetings. My name is Tenzin Wangyal. I'm a Tibetan lama. I was born in India, grew up in a monastery, and received my geshe degree at Menri Monastery in northern India in 1986. The geshe degree is the full training in Buddhist philosophy. After I finished that, I traveled with my teacher, His Eminence Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche. In the last 30 years, I have been teaching in the West. We have established Ligmincha International organization, based in Virginia. We have started more than 35 centers around the world. So I'm very happy and honored to be invited to teach this Tricycle Dharma Talk series. The title of week one of this four-week course will be "Facing Fear, Finding Peace." It's very important to understand our fear when it manifests. The only way to find a deep sense of peace is when you can fully recognize, embrace, accommodate, accept, and transcend your fear. Most of the time in our life, we tend to run away from our fear. We are not able to see, connect with, and transform our fear. So that will be the first week. The second week is titled "Turning Pain into the Path." It's very important to recognize one's suffering and then know what causes the suffering; this is an important teaching in Buddhism; we see this, for example, in the first noble truth. It is similar in the Tibetan tradition we call it taking all our experiences into the path of our enlightenment. The third week is "The True Source of Healing." This is very much based on the Dzogchen tradition, the "tradition of great perfection" in Tibetan. So what does that mean? That means that to truly heal ourselves, we need to fully connect to ourselves, to our true self. So the only way to heal ourselves is to be connected to the true source. The true source is who we truly are, rather than who we think we are and all the negative identities that we have. We identify ourselves with what we do, what we think, what we feel, what we have. All of those are causes of suffering, not the source of healing. The source of healing comes only when we truly recognize ourselves. So the true source of healing will be the third week's topic. The fourth week's title is "The Melody of Silence." It's a beautiful meditation, a beautiful practice. The most important way to experience wisdom and deep meditation is to access the silence. This is because these noises and voices we have in our head, every thought and emotion which goes on in us during meditation and our life, all those things interfere with the arising of awareness and wisdom. The moment we experience deep silence, that is the moment when wisdom and awareness arise because there are not many normal noises there. 1 Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche Concern without Panic Week 1: “Facing Fear, Finding Peace” October 3, 2020 There's a metaphor for this about a pond. When you don't shake the water all the stones fall down and all the leaves come up, then you see the crystal clear water. So we're able to see our true self through the silence when we deeply experience the quietness. So there is the fourth week's topic. So, today's topic, the first week's topic, is facing fear and finding peace. During this pandemic, we are all feeling so much uncertainty, we are feeling anxiety, we are feeling fear. We don't know what's going to happen in the future. We don't know what the future will look like. So this is a very vulnerable moment, a very unpredictable moment. The uncertainty causes our fear. So we are all collectively and individually facing a deep fear. Many times this results in us living our life with fear. We see the world through fear, we respond to the world through fear, we make decisions with the fear, and as a consequence of that, a lot of suffering, pain, and confusion is created. So you need to recognize the fear. Recognize the fear that you are experiencing this very moment in yourself, in your heart, in your breath, in every single cell in your body, you can feel this energy of fear and the fear is fully there. We need to fully open ourselves, our eyes, our heart, our attitude, toward the fear, and host it. Accommodate that fear. We all are facing fear. But people typically deny, ignore, and run away. When you do that you are not faster than your fear. Fear will find you, fear will chase you, fear will be faster than you. In the end you don't resolve fear, you become more confused and lost as a result of running away from fear. So, the moment you face fear is the moment. You need to receive this as a great opportunity to embrace it. We call this hosting the fear, accommodating it, accepting it, connecting with it. The fear is like somebody who needs you and who's asking for your help. If you're avoiding it by running away, you're not helping. But if you hear it, if you feel it, if you're connecting with it, then the fear will dissolve. So, what do you need to do to approach this in meditation? The moment you feel this deep fear, anxiety, or uncertainty—any moment when you feel it—first recognize that this is what is happening in your life at this particular moment. Then you need to bring your full attention to your body and allow your body to fully rest in the stillness. Feel that. Connect with that stillness. Ground yourself in your body, with the awareness of your body. Then gradually bring your awareness to your speech and your silence. That means feel the silence. Hear the silence. Be aware of the silence. Connect with the silence. Rest in the silence. Ground yourself in the silence in your speech. Lastly, be aware of whatever anxiety or anxiousness you feel in your heart and your mind. Be aware of that. Breathe deep. Allow it to release. Allow yourself to rest in the sacred space in your heart. 2 Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche Concern without Panic Week 1: “Facing Fear, Finding Peace” October 3, 2020 You're being aware of your body resting in the stillness. You're being aware of your speech, resting in the silence. Being aware of your mind, emotions, allowing them to rest in your heart, in the sacred space of your mind. When you can rest in your body, speech, and mind and connect with it; when you're able to connect with that inner stillness, inner silence, inner spaciousness, you are already stronger. From that place of stillness, silence, and spaciousness you look at the fear. Be with the fear. Now you give what I call a spacious, luminous, warm hug. A spacious, luminous, warm hug. If a friend who is deep in pain and feeling lost comes to you and asks you for help, what would you do? Would you ignore them? No! Would you reject them? No. Would you try to change the topic? No. You would be there and be present. You will listen. You would connect. You would be open to that person, you would hug them. You will be there for them. You should do the same for your fear. You look at the fear, be present, and give a spacious, luminous, warm hug. A spacious, luminous, warm hug. Spacious means being completely open to your fear. Because fear is the result or a manifestation of lack of openness, and openness is the cure and medicine for fear. "Spacious," that's what it means. Luminous means being fully present and being fully aware of the fear. So, you are there, but you are fully aware of it. You're fully connected to the fear. Like you're fully connected to your good friend who is crying and asking for help. And the last thing is the warmth. A sense of care, compassion, love: these are all qualities of warmth. But the warmth arises naturally when you are present, connected, and open. So when you are open and aware these qualities are naturally present. Many times in our life we are not open. We are not present and we manipulate or we invent some sense of warmth, a false idea of warmth, but these are not really warm feelings and they don't heal. So what do you need to do when you're facing fear? Give a spacious, luminous, warm hug. Do this after you rest in your body, rest in that stillness, rest in your speech, resting in that silence, resting in your mind in that sacred space in your heart. After you rest in your body, rest in your speech, and rest in your mind, you are more open, more present, and you have more warm quality. Then you can bring that quality fully to the fear that you're facing. When you do that in meditation, what happens? The fear is like ice, and when the skies clear and the sun shines and hits the ice then the ice melts. Or when you drop that ice into the ocean it melts into the vast ocean. So in the same way, this frozen fear gets melted with that spacious, luminous, warm hug that you are giving to your fear.